Tuesday, November 27, 2012

StackExchange and the [tridion] tag

If you use any of the Tridion community resources, you have certainly started using StackOverflow for your Tridion questions (or for your daily dose of questions).

However, we seem to have started abusing the principles of StackOverflow - programming questions - and getting more and more configuration questions.

While, obviously, our community members rush out to try to help, it will probably not be long before someone starts closing off threads that ask no real question, no real programming question, or that are just discussion starters.

The number of open-ended, non-programming questions is annoying (to say the least). Luckily, the people behind StackExchange know very well that not all IT questions are programming questions, so there are other sites that we can use for all your Tridion Software knowledge questions:

So, next time you're going to ask on StackOverflow how to configure Session Preview, or how to best design a workflow, please take a minute to consider if this is a programming question, and if this should be in Stack Overflow. Server configuration questions are better suited for ServerFault, while usability questions should go in SuperUser. Simple.

If you're afraid that people may miss it (since most people only monitor Stack Overflow after all), then perhaps shout out on the Tridion Forum too. The MVPs typically pick up on these things quite fast, and the community will continue growing without impacting our generous hosts at SO.

Yes, I also agree that we should have a Tridion-dedicated Stack Exchange site. That's why I committed to this proposal on Area 51, as I am sure you have too.